Hakurei Noir
by William Ungerstein Fmerigo
Summary: There's been a murder at the Hakurei Shrine, and the lazy police force of Gensokyo can't do anything about it. The only one left to solve the case- Inspector Nitori! Will she deduce the culprit behind the murder of Marisa Kirisame, or die trying? Find out in Hakurei Noir! Rated T for dark themes (I mean, it's a murder mystery after all).


Police sirens blared around the scene of the crime that had just taken place. This would normally suggest the prescience of a police car, but in this case, it didn't. Some fairies were playing around with kappa tech. However, a murder _had_ taken place at the Hakurei Shrine.

That's right. Marisa Kirisame was dead.

"Ma'am, what do you know about the murder?" the famous tengu reporter, Aya, asked the victim's lover.

Reimu cried. "I… I don't know anything, she just… showed up, bleeding, told me to… to run, and I did…" she burst into tears.

Aya sighed as she turned to the police commissioner, Yukari Yakumo. "It's not working," Aya said. "This is all the evidence I can get. I'm not used to murder cases like this…"

Yukari sighed. "Very well, you may leave. I have in mind someone better suited for the job."

* * *

A blue-haired, trench-coat wearing woman sat with her legs propped up on her desk. Nitori Kawashiro, the super-genius and inventor. She was as smart as they got. And she had nothing to do. Her rent had been paid, her utilities taken care of, and her idling had only spawned a few useless bits and bobs that she had nothing useful to do with.

She sighed deeply, cursing the boredom that was being forced upon her simply by the uninteresting nature of Gensokyo.

She looked around her office for a while, savoring the gothic look, before even that began to bore her. Thankfully, as she finished, her phone rang.

"Inspector Nitori here," she said as she picked it up. "How may I help you?"

"Nitori? It's Yukari. We've got a murder on our hands."

Nitori rubbed her temples. Murder cases were often messy, and just the mention of them began bringing back some stressful memories. She had to remain professional, though, or so she told herself. "All right, what's up?"

"All right. Well, the location is the Hakurei Shrine. Marisa Kirisame reportedly ran in, covered in stab wounds, told what would've been our only witness, Reimu, her lover, to run, and as Reimu complied, she heard screams from behind her. Next thing you know, we've got a corpse on our hands. Aya was unable to scrounge up much more than that."

"Jeez. I mean, that's not nasty, as these things go, but it sure is brutal. How many wounds?" Nitori tried to recall similar cases, without much luck. Though, to her, it seemed like a revenge killing.

"Seventeen. Though, reportedly, there were five before Reimu ran."

Nitori thought for a while. "I need more evidence," she concluded. "How detailed is your investigation so far?"

"Not much besides the evidence the 'witness' has brought us." Yukari sighed. "Of course, that should change once you arrive."

Nitori chuckled. "Oh, you know me far too well, Yakumo. Gather everyone relevant to the crime for me at the police station. They're the suspects. I'll visit the crime scene after interrogating all of them, and I'll be done in a day."

* * *

Yukari gestured to the lineup. "You say these are our suspects?"

Nitori nodded, looking over the line. Reimu, Suika, Patchouli, and Alice. "Seems like a good lineup. Time to get interrogating, then."

Nitori's eyes expertly swept over the line through the one-way window of the police station, analyzing their emotional states.

Reimu was practically in tears, and was clearly still devastated over Marisa's passing. Likely more so over the fact she was being accused of it. That was one of the sad parts of being an investigator- you had to suspect _everyone_.

Then there was Suika. She was drunk, and it wasn't even hard to tell. She was swaying back and forth like a playground swing. However, she was smiling an awful lot for being brought into a police station. Most drunks weren't so happy about being apprehended off the streets. It was curious, and worth looking into later.

Alice was clearly nervous, probably from having her dolls confiscated at the door, but she was most definitely suspicious. Fidgeting, coughing despite reportedly being in perfectly good health… Nitori didn't know her all that well, but those were relatively common nervous tics. Though it never hurt to suspect.

Patchouli, on the other hand, was seemingly unperturbed. She was yawning, having been brought out of her library quite early, and was clearly not happy to be there. If anything, she was just mildly annoyed. For being implicated in a murder investigation, she was far too optimistic. Like many killers with so-called 'master plans' that Nitori had seen. All too confident, all too prideful… she fit the bill quite well. But it could also be that she just wasn't afraid, since she knew it wasn't her.

All four were perfectly valid suspects, though. Nitori sighed. Usually, by now, it's be down to two.

"Yukari," Nitori said. "I think I might've stumbled into a case bigger than even I thought it'd be."

"Perhaps. I'll call each one aside for an interrogation. I take it you're up to the task."

"Of course."

* * *

Reimu entered first, still sniffling. Yukari had barely managed to calm her, which Nitori knew would complicate things quite a bit.

"All right, Reimu…" Nitori sighed. "I'm sorry, but just run me through when and where everything happened."

Reimu nodded. "I understand. If I want to find Marisa's killer, cooperating is the only option. No matter how painful it may be…" her eyes watered for a moment, but she blinked away the tears and began her testimony.

"At around 7:30 PM, Marisa ran into my house. She was bleeding, with seven stab wounds in her chest…" Reimu sniffled, but continued. "She told me to run while I still could. I… did. I shouldn't have. Living without her is so painful, I can't even… I wish I'd died with her!" She burst into tears.

"I'm sorry, Ma'am." Nitori signaled Yukari. "That'll be enough for now."

* * *

Alice, the magician, came next. As a suspect, Nitori knew she was far more, er, lucrative. Her mannerisms and ways just said 'jealousy' to her. It'd be a perfect chance to find out more information about Marisa Kirisame, and what she was doing before she had died.

As Alice entered and sat down in the armchair across from Nitori, she scowled. Nitori wasn't too perturbed, but took a good mental note of it.

"So," Nitori said. "I hear you knew Marisa Kirisame. Quite well, in fact."

"Yes, though that shouldn't come as a surprise to you." Alice leaned back, fidgeting with her thumbs. Another common nervous tic. "We lived quite close to each other. Unlike that absolute whore, Reimu. Having Marisa visit her across those massive distances… she must be insane!"

That was, needless to say, quite strong language. Nitori was honestly shocked. "I take it you dislike Reimu," she said lamely.

"Dislike? I hate her!" Alice's facial expression became incredibly angry. "She took Marisa from me!"

"Ah." A new clue. Alice had past relations with Marisa. "May I ask what you were doing the last time you saw Marisa?"

"Oh…" Alice's expression became sad, as if all of her anger had instantly become melancholy. "It was the 17th of last month. Funny, huh? Exactly a month… see, she… she told me we couldn't be together any more. And then she eloped with that jay! If I didn't love her so much, I'd hate her…" She sighed. "It's a little late to get her back _now_ , though. I threw out all of my dolls that she'd touched, too. Just to spite her. But now I feel a little bad for doing that."

"Ah, right." Nitori had immediately realized something. Alice's emotional responses seemed almost faked. Going from anger to sadness so quickly would typically indicate bipolar, or something else going on. In this case, something else. "Well, that's all for now, Ms. Margatroid."

* * *

Patchouli was the next one due for interrogation.

"Sit down, Ms. Knowledge," Nitori said to her. "We need to talk."

"Of course." Patchouli sat down. "May I state right now that I have no involvement in this?"

"Unfortunately, it's too early to rule anyone out."

"Of course." Patchouli gave Nitori a knowing look. "I understand completely. I assume you wish to know my impression of the victim?"

"That would be wonderful."

Patchouli nodded, and began. "Marisa Kirisame was a wonderful woman, despite her near-constant break-ins to my private library. Though, eventually, she stopped stealing and started talking to me. After a set of peculiar circumstances, I ended up underneath her on a bed, and the rest is history, I suppose."

"Curious. When was this?"

"Early last month." Patchouli blushed, ashamed of herself. She quickly aimed to rectify the impression she'd given Nitori. "Though, I must tell you I quickly realized she was not fit for me romantically," she continued. "She was simply after my body. So I cut things off with her as fast as possible."

Nitori considered the facts. If what Patchouli was saying was true, Marisa had been with _at least_ two other girls before abruptly falling in love with Reimu and getting engaged and running away. Within only maybe two weeks, at that. They'd never gotten to complete their marriage ceremony, though, due to the murder. This suggested that one of the girls Marisa had bedded was the culprit. Though it was impossible to know how many she'd been involved with. That complicated things.

"All right, thank you, Ms. Knowledge," Nitori said. "That's all I need to know."

* * *

And, finally, Suika entered. The first thing she said was, as follows, "Gimme some booze and I'll chat!"

Nitori raised an eyebrow. That was unexpected. "Sure… I suppose. Though I apologize, I don't have much on me." She pulled out a small flask of whiskey, which she carried for when the job got too hard for her to handle, and passed it over to Suika, who chugged it in an instant.

Suika burped. "All… okay! I'll tell you 'bout Marisa! I was drinkin' last night, when I saw Marisa walking about! Okay? And now, here's the cool bit! She was with a girl!"

Last night. That meant that Marisa had been cheating on Reimu. "Who was this?"

"Bah, some youkai gal. Probably. She had that sort of aura, you know, the magic. You can f… feel it." Suika yawned and scratched her ear nonchalantly. "I ain't knowing of much else 'bout the gal. Never though' it was important or an… _anything_. But when I heard she died! Wow! I had to tell someone, cuz, like… whoa."

"All right, then." That answer had been quite direct and quite lacking in grammar, probably due to the alcohol, but quite helpful as well, Nitori found. If she was telling the truth, and again, it was a big _if_ , that meant the killer had been with the victim on the night of the murder.

* * *

And, as such, Nitori moved on to the investation. It was simple- return to the shrine, and gather as much further data as possible.

Nitori looked around, sizing up her surroundings. The chalk outline of where the victim lay was still on the ground, atop blood-stained tatami mats. It made her sick that someone, out of jealousy, would do this in the house of their lover's beloved. Or something along those lines.

"How's it going?" Aya asked, arriving on the scene behind Nitori.

"Fine. Despite that I haven't even started." Nitori began moving around the room. It was always important to understand the shape of an area related to the case. However, as she did this, she noticed something shine from under a dresser.

Aya looked at Nitori's investigation bag as Nitori moved towards the source of the shine. "Whoa," Aya said as she looked inside. "What's all this?"

"Measurement tools. All sorts of stuff. It gives me a good idea which areas are suspicious." Nitori pulled out the source of the shine she'd seen, and gasped.

"What?" Aya asked.

"Looks like our culprit was lazy. They didn't dispose of the murder weapon." Nitori held up a tiny lance, one of Alice's doll's signature weapons. "Looks like it was Alice."

"Whoa. As expected from Nitori."

"Now, now. Even this isn't conclusive evidence." Nitori began searching the floor.

"What're you looking for?" Aya asked.

"Doll hair," she replied. "If it _was_ Alice, either she or her dolls had to have left a trace- Aha!" Nitori pulled a long black hair from the folds of the tatami mat, and sighed. "Never mind, it's Reimu's. Sort of long, though. Maybe she got a haircut recently."

"Huh…" Alice looked into the bag. "One of your devices is clicking, by the way."

Nitori walked over to the bag carefully, so as to not disturb the crime scene, and grabbed the clicking sensor. "Now that's odd. This one's never done that before."

"Do you know what it means?" Aya asked confusedly. "It looks weird.

Indeed it did. It was an oblong box with a half-circle indicator cut into the end. The needle on it was stuck to the right, and was jiggling oddly.

"No, unfortunately, this is one of the outside world tools that's measured in a language I can't understand. And that human village girl who can read anything would flip if I showed up. I'm known for my past habits of eating humans." Nitori tapped the box, and then pointed it to the murder weapon. The clicking grew faster.

"Wait a minute, isn't that…" Aya chuckled. "Well, looks like the one Youkai Mountain resident here who actually gets out of their office sometimes _can_ be helpful. I saw a certain raven youkai using one of those things."

"Can you get me in touch with her?"

"Absolutely."

* * *

Nitori tapped her fingers on the table, restlessly. She was growing tired of waiting for this Utsuho person. Especially in a Human Village restaurant, where people expected her to attack and eat a human there rather than their food. The mysterious device lay in front of her, and the weapon was in her bag a few feet away, sealed in a plastic wrapper so it would remain undisturbed. The thing was still clicking, though very slowly now.

"Oh, _there_ you are!" A black-haired girl in a dress top and green miniskirt arrived. In addition to her other garb, she had on stockings. However, that wasn't the interesting part. The interesting part was the giant red eye in the middle of her chest, and the raven wings. Not to mention the arm-cannon looking thing and the cape that looked like a gateway to another world. She was most definitely Utsuho Reiuji.

"Ah, hello," Nitori said as Utsuho sat down. "I'll get straight to business- what is this thing?"

"Oh, that's easy!" Utsuho pointed to it. "That's a Geiger counter. I use them at work all the time for measuring nuclear radiation."

Nitori nodded as she sipped the whiskey she'd ordered. It wasn't as good as what she usually drank, perhaps a little earthier in taste, but it was fine. Just mediocre. "So…" Nitori gestured to the thing. "The very right side means…"

"Lots of radiation. Deadly, in most cases. It clicks when it senses radiation, too." Utsuho grabbed it and pressed it to her chest, causing it to click rapidly. "See?"

"Ah. So you're radioactive?" Nitori asked.

"Definitely. It's all the nuclear reactor work, plus the Yatagarasu inside of me." Utsuho handed the reactor back. "I leave somewhat of a trail, too. But that's all in a day's work."

"Right." Nitori placed the device back in her bag, which began to click. Utsuho looked a bit surprised, but then pretended to ignore it. "Well," Nitori continued. "Can you tell me a bit about Marisa Kirisame? Do you know her?"

Utsuho sighed. "Yeah, I know her. She went into my reactor once… and… and…" She shuddered. "I'd honestly rather not talk about it. It was _bad_."

"When was this?"

"Oh, gods… I remember the exact day, minute for minute. The 5th of last month. The worst part, though, she expected me to be grateful for what she'd done!" Utsuho slammed her arm cannon (control rod?) down onto the table, and then sighed, pulling it back onto her lap. "I did go around town with her, once. I wanted to show her that I was independent of her. But that backfired… in the worst way possible." Utsuho shuddered again, but this time Nitori noticed something different. She couldn't put her finger on it, but… wait a minute.

"Thanks for the info," Nitori said. She plopped some change down onto the table for her drink. "I've got stuff to do now, though."

* * *

It was starting to make sense. The witness accounts, the murder weapon, the radiation, the long black hair, longer than Reimu's… and the killer herself had given her the last piece, not even aware that Nitori was an investigator. Though the question about Marisa had come out of the blue, the murder was the talk of the town. She hadn't been too surprised by the question. Though if she did realize who Nitori was, there might be issues. Hopefully, the case would be resolved by then. But as it stood, Utsuho was clueless.

All for the better. She'd be more surprised when the cops pulled into her reactor.

Nitori assumed the murder had taken place as follows: First, Utsuho went out into the town with Marisa. Second, Marisa made another move on her. Third, Utsuho had stabbed her with whatever was on hand. Presumably, one of Alice's discarded dolls' weapons had been picked up by Utsuho, who stabbed Marisa seven times. Marisa was likely shocked by this, allowing Utsuho to get in a further six stabs. Then, Marisa ran home to Reimu, told her to run, and got killed.

There were two last pieces of evidence she needed. She'd picked up the radiation trail leading from the village to the shrine on her way out. But the last thing she needed was a look at the corpse.

* * *

And that had just confirmed it.

The cuts had been cauterized. And a primary sourcebook on danmaku attacks (ironically written by Marisa) confirmed that Utsuho primarily attacked with fire.

Nitori watched as Utsuho was dragged off into the jail, with a smile on her face. She'd done well. But one thing about the arrest stuck out to her.

Utsuho, even as she was being dragged into jail, was shouting " _they_ made me do it!".

Nitori sighed. She'd probably gotten herself into quite the pinch. But then again, wasn't _anything_ better than constant boredom?

Perhaps, she thought as she walked off to her office. Perhaps.


End file.
